'Callous and dangerous' as teenager

He was just 18 when the judge first sentenced him after hearing how Slade had left a woman seriously injured when she tried to stop him taking her family’s car from outside their home in Swillington, Leeds, in 1992.

Jean Mosses suffered five separate fractures of the skull and was put on a life support machine after she and her husband Ronnie were thrown off their Nissan sports car as Slade drove away with the couple on the bonnet.

The judge condemned the law because it allowed him to pass only a 12-month sentence in a young offenders institution on Slade because he was only 17 when convicted of the offences.

He had already spent seven and a half months in custody on remand so the sentence at Leeds Crown Court in October 1993 meant his immediate release.

The judge told him then: “If I had my way, I’d be sending you away for seven or eight years because that’s the sort of sentence you richly deserve.”

Slade had admitted causing GBH to Mrs Mosses, three charges of taking vehicles without consent, escaping from custody, conspiracy to burgle, handling stolen goods and using a false instrument to obtain a passport.

Following an appearance at Leeds Youth Court Slade was being taken back to jail handcuffed to a policeman when two men helped him escape, cutting the cuffs with bolt cutters.

He committed further car crime and burglaries before he was re-arrested months later at Newcastle Airport with a false passport.

The judge said, having caused serious harm to Mrs Mosses by his “wicked, callous driving”, while on the run he had gone on to commit serious crimes “in the big league.”

Little did he know how true his words would be.